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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Movies in a Minute: Cruel Intentions

This is the part where I confess that I was a bad kid of the late 90s. I turned up my nose at crap like Cruel Intentions. I didn't see it till about seven years later in college when I took a French lit course where among other things we studied the novel Dangerous Liaisons and watched a few scenes from some of the film versions of it.

And yes, I did end up writing my term paper on, among other things, Cruel Intentions. A movie written in English based upon a play written in English based upon a French novel. (Don't even get me started about the day we watched Carmen: A Hip Hopera when we studied the novella by Mérimée.) To quote Blackadder...university education! You can't beat it.

So, reminisce. It's 1999. Prince's song is just now becoming obsolete. Placebo is relevant. And Dawson and Buffy rule the WB with iron fists.

Psychiatrist: "And remember, Sebastian. I'm listening."

Sebastian: "You have beautiful legs. I'd love to photograph them."

Dr. Melfi: "Mine are hotter."

Psychiatrist: "Excuse me. A parent's work is never done!"

Daughter: "Mom, I didn't listen to James Lipton, and now there's pictures of me on the Internet!"

Sebastian: "Look what a rakish cad I am. Playing games with the psychiatrist's daughter. Ah. Debauchery."

Sadako: "Getting Tara Reid to take her clothes off? That's not exactly the 'Jump Springfield Gorge' of great sexual feats."

Sebastian: "Oh yeah? Well, I also ripped out a page from a magazine in the therapist's waiting area."

Dr. Melfi: "SOCIOPATH!"

Kathryn: "As student body president, I try to set an example. I'm sure Cecile will do fine at Manchester, under my wing of course. MAU! DIDIMAU!"

Cecile: "What'd you say?"

Kathryn: "I was thanking her. Vietnamese is such a beautiful language, don't you think?"

Sadako: "Well, that settles it. No one who speaks Vietnamese could possibly be evil."

Mrs. Caldwell: "I'm sure my daughter will do well to follow your example. I just don't know how someone like you could have a stepbrother like Sebastian Valmont. What he did to the school nurse..."

Sebastian: "Ah, that's me. Sebastian Valmont! Man about town!"

Kathryn: "Sebastian, I have a proposition for you. You remember Court Reynolds, my former beau? He's now interested in Cecile Caldwell. Court's a virgin hound. I want to corrupt Cecile so that she's the premiere tramp of the New York area. Turns out that Court, in addition to being an asshole, is a forty year old man with a midlife crisis."

Sadako: "Making your former boyfriend's new flame into a slut? Are you also going to break into his house and store priceless art, Professor Chaos?"

Sebastian: "No, seducing a young virgin is too easy. My plan is to seduce a slightly older virgin. Look, it's an article about the new headmaster's daughter in Seventeen who's waiting till marriage. I'm going to seduce this Anette Hardgrove. I can use the free Tampax pearl that came with the magazine to arouse her interest."

Kathryn: "Fine, let's make a wager. If I win, I get your vintage car. If you win, you get butt sex with Buffy."

Sadako: "If you win, you get an awesome antique car and if you lose you get to have sex with Ryan Phillippe. Heads I win, tails you lose?"

Sadako: "Someone who reads the script and doesn't need someone off-screen feeding her lines, like you and the rest of the Mickey Mouse club on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer."

Kathryn: "Hey there, just showing up at your apartment unannounced with my POW camp servant in tow, to lurk menacingly for the benefit of the audience who might still think I'm fighting for truth, justice, and a vampire free lifestyle."

Cecile: "This is my music teacher, Ronald. He's dreamy."

Ronald: "I'm working on an opera on Dr. Martin Luther King. You know, because I'm black, and it's my only real character trait, and I need to remind the audience of that fact as often as possible."

Jessi Ramsey: "My brother, I feel you."

Sebastian: "Who? Who could have figured out that I'm no good. Who's reading the script?"

Blaine: "Why, it must be that debauched ne'er-do-well, Greg McConnell, star of the football team who's secretly gay and whom I'm secretly shtupping. He and Annette are both from Kansas. Why not sneak into my house tonight and catch him in the act of gay sex as revenge?"

Mrs. Caldwell: "How dare he seduce my daughter. Wait, I think I was a little off, Roger, I can smolder a bit more--"

Director Roger Kumble: "That's fine, Christine. Go join Swoozie Kurtz in the trailer--I had prunes brought in for a Matlock-a-thon. OK, on to the young, supple makeout sessions."

Kathryn: "Perfect. Plan in motion. Cecile will fall right into Ronald's arms now that he's even more forbidden. And in addition, Sebastian, you can also get Cecile over to our house under the guise of letter writing and then fuck her brains out."

Sebastian: "You know, you could be a model."

Cecile: "Really?"

Sebastian: "It's too bad you're not...sexy."

Cecile: "I can be sexy!"

Mystery: "Good one. The negging is strong in this one."

Sebastian: "Cecile. I just want to give you a kiss."

Cecile: "You do?"

Sebastian: "Not there. I want to give you a kiss on your bearded clam. I really am a cunning linguist, aren't I? Ooh, good one. Note to self, remember to write that zinger down in journal."

Cecile: "Your brother took advantage of me."

Kathryn: "He forced intercourse on you? He made you give him a blow job?"

Cecile: "Well, no, he...with the licking and tongue and the GLAVIN!"

Kathryn: "Silly child, rape is for icky sorts. Caddish rakes like my brother or our family friend Chuck Bass are just members of the William Kennedy Smith fan club. Now go have sex with him."

Aunt Helen: "Kids, I've got theater tickets. Off to the nursing home with you to do a good deed or two."

Sebastian: "Old lady, we played backgammon three times, and you won. Now don't bother me, I'm plotting."

Oldie: "Now, now, if you're not nice, I'm not gonna let you stay up to watch Howdy Doody!"

Sebastian: "So, I've noticed you around...would you, um...go to bed with me? Come on. You know you want to. Please? I was nice to an old person. Isn't that like foreplay to you do gooder types?"

Annette: "No thanks."

Sebastian: "Oh, you're mean! Well. I just wanted to tell you I'm going. I may go to the South of France. I may stick a cherry bomb in someone's mailbox. I may even use my slingshot on Mr. Wilson. I'm a complicated soul."

Annette: "I see."

Sebastian: "Oh, come on, pleeeaaase? I'll be your best friend. I'll explain why I have a strange bump on my head in certain shots."

Sebastian: "I mean, uh...Damn. Get it together, you pussy. Wow, this is a really good skin day for me. OK, seriously, this time, I mean it. I'm ready."

Sebastian: "Awesome. I bedded Annette, bought some super durable condoms for the anal sex, and I'm ready to do my sister."

Kathryn: *giggle*

Sebastian: "What the? Great. You want me to have sex with you after you've done it with Shaft? No way. This is not a dick measuring contest. Forget it. I'd rather moon around after Annette."

Kathryn: "Sebastian, you don't love me anymore."

Sebastian: "Sure I do. Our relationship is just more Boxcar children and less Josh and Cher in Clueless."

Kathryn: "Fine, but you know your bad reputation will suffer if you keep dating this Annette chick."

Christine Baranski: "Oh, you mean the reputation no one but me was aware of so far?"

Sadako: "Hey, I was about to say--what are you doing here?"

Christine Baranski: "My scenes are over. There's really nothing else for me to do but tally the amount of money they paid me for this thing, make sure I'm the 'and' actress in the credits, and mock these children mercilessly."

Sadako: "Sweet. Have a seat on the orange snark couch. Want a Mrs. Freshley's cupcake?"